Sri Lanka government will be taking urgent measures to digitize the court system as part of its ongoing digitization of State institutions
Minister of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology (MDIIT), Ajith P. Perera recently said that the total investment for this initiative will be in the region of Rs.3 billion.
It is part of the integrated national digitization endeavor of the Government he added.
Minister Ajith P Perera who is a strong backer of Sajith Premadasa’s Presidential candidacy has taken up the role of Justice Ministry spokesman as the courts are supposed to be independent; the administrative matters of the courts are handled by the Ministry of Justice.
Digitization is not a question of replacing judges, lawyers or courts, but assisting them through computer and digital technology.
Such computerization and digitization can minimize time, increase efficiency, standardize communication and prevent misplace or loss of (moth-eaten!) records.
Therefore the digitization of the court system should primarily come from the Ministry of Justice, of course with the assistance from the Ministry of Digital Infrastructure and Information Technology.
The digitization of the court system has not been mentioned in the Justice Ministry website.
In the same website, there was a Message from the Minister, Thalatha Atukorale, but no mentioning of digitization or anything closer to that objective. The Ministry’s Vision or Mission statement does not mention it either.
The million dollar question here was as to why did suddenly Minister Perera want to allocate Rs. 3 billion for digitization of the court system?
A sum of Rs. 3 billion for digitization of the court system is not at all a sufficient amount to cater to the whole court system.
If it is a part of political statements that his favorite leader, Sajith Premadasa, is indulged in these days, it is understandable to an extent, political analyst said.
(LI)